


before, we were brothers

by peppermintquartz



Series: Finn's Playroom [5]
Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Brotherly Love, Friendship, Gen, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-16
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2020-01-15 00:50:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18487888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peppermintquartz/pseuds/peppermintquartz
Summary: Snapshots of Seth's life before Hunter.





	before, we were brothers

**Author's Note:**

> This is the relationship among Seth, Roman, and Dean, and ties in with the overall Playroom!verse, but as it isn't 'between' scenes, I've set it aside by itself.

Seth was thirteen when he came out as gay. When Seth came out, he chose to tell his best friend first. Well, ‘chose’ was not quite accurate.

He’d known Dean since they were both eleven years old, the only two boys of the same age who moved to the same street around the same time, when everyone else around them already had best friends. Now, they were thirteen going on fourteen, school had just let out, Dean was checking out the softball team’s captain, and Seth blurted out, “I think I’m gay.”

He felt as if his heart stopped beating and he stared at his feet. Why had he said that? What if Dean stopped being friends with him? What if Dean told the others?

Dean turned to stare at him for a minute. Then, he went back to staring at the tall, leggy blonde shouting at her teammates to run faster. “Funny. You still look like my best friend, Seth Rollins.”

“You asshole,” Seth said, kicking Dean in the ankle, “that was so lame.”

“How do you know anyway?” Dean asked. He was still looking at the girls.

Seth shrugged. “You know the new guy? The Samoan with the long black hair?” He hugged himself around the middle. “Roman Reigns?”

“Yeah? What about him?”

“Well, when I look at him or think about him, I want to... I just, I get weird feelings.” Seth blushed. “I don’t know. Is it weird?”

“Depends on what you mean by weird. Like you wanna kiss him or something?” Dean slung an arm over Seth’s skinny shoulders. “Well, can’t say I can get him to date you since he is a senior and he’s _way_ outta your league, but Reanne’s twin brother Aiden is kinda cute. If I can score a date with her, maybe I can find out if he’s into guys.”

“Don’t you dare-” Seth warned, but he never got around to issuing the threat because the softball team’s coach was stalking towards them to yell at the boys for loitering around. Dean grabbed Seth’s hand and they pelted all the way back to their bikes, laughing, and cycled back to Seth’s home for video games.

***

Seth was fifteen when he came out to his parents. They didn’t get angry, but they were not supportive either. His dad asked if it was because they didn’t spend enough time together. His mom said, “Well, maybe it’s just a phase.”

Seth loved his parents. He knew they didn’t _get_ him, though, not when he began drawing detailed line drawings of their home, sketched out cottages and cabins, borrowed books on Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, nor when he started working out but insisted on remaining with the photography club instead of trying out for a team sport.

Thing was, Dean didn’t get him either (except for the music part), but he _listened_. He might look like a thug with his messy hair and muscular physique (Seth was only a little jealous that he couldn’t seem to build up bulk; at least he had bigger eyes than Dean and more girls liked to ask him out, though he couldn’t ever do anything more than a few shy, polite kisses), but Dean would sit and listen to Seth ramble on for an hour about the clean, perfectly balanced lines of a room, or prattle about how inefficiently-designed the school cafeteria was, and he’d ask questions sometimes.

Of course, Seth listened to Dean talk about girls, cars, girls, baseball, girls, gym, girls, that fucking idiot who tried to push Dean’s mom around, and girls. Dean’s mom was a determined and resourceful woman, raising Dean and his sister by herself. When she knew that Seth was gay, she had hugged him and said, “If anyone tries to give you shit for that, tell me, and I’d knock their teeth out of their stupid faces.”

“Mom, you’re embarrassing,” Dean had said, as if he hadn’t already punched Gerald in their social studies class for calling Seth a faggot and been sent to detention for it.

***

Seth was seventeen when Dean dropped out of school. By then, Seth was taller and bigger, muscles developed enough to take care of himself, but he was devastated when Dean left. He understood why, of course. Dean hadn’t liked formal education, preferring to work with his hands, and was thinking of joining the army. Seth didn’t want that for Dean - he hated the idea of Dean going on tour to Iraq or Afghanistan, he didn’t want his best friend to become a killer, or for him to be injured or killed - but despite their roaring arguments, Dean’s mind was set.

Two months after Dean dropped out of school, he introduced Seth to Roman, as if Seth had forgotten the cute boy who made him realize he was gay. Roman who was now a freshman at college, taking health sciences and already in the football team, built like an actual Roman _god_ , with gleaming bronze skin, thick black hair, and a wide, friendly smile, still made Seth feel strange in his gut, still made him long to get close to the older boy. Still, Seth was happy with being friends.

It turned out that Roman almost ran Dean down in his car because the brakes nearly stopped working, and from there they became friends, because Roman’s family had just moved away to Hawaii.

Seth would have given Roman his right _arm_ once the older guy persuaded Dean to become an apprentice at the garage that fixed Roman’s car. Dean’s mom and sister had been overjoyed too. On a more personal note, Seth was really happy when he realized that Roman knew he was gay and didn’t care; he just liked having two younger brothers to roughhouse with again.

Despite having both Seth and Dean to teach him, Roman was terrible at video games. But it gave Seth chances to lean against the big guy and elbow him for losing spectacularly. And sometimes, on a lazy weekend afternoon, the three of them would just sprawl all over one another in Dean’s or Seth’s room, napping or talking about their future.

***

Seth was nearly eighteen, literally, just a day away from eighteen, and nervous as hell. Roman was in college and the idol of dozens of girls, and while he didn’t visit Dean and Seth as often, he still dropped by every second or third weekend for a meal with them. Seth was nervous, and he had something else planned that night.

They celebrated at Seth’s house with his family, Dean and his girlfriend Marie(whip-smart and pretty and generous, and Dean was rightfully head over heels in love with her), and Roman asked to stay over in the Rollins guest room for the night so the three guys could go to a movie and then hit the arcade the next day for “some stupid childish fun”, as Dean called it.

Dean knew what Seth was planning, so he was the one who instigated Roman to drive them all out to the high school football field. They tossed a ball around for a while, Marie and Dean on a team, Seth and Roman on the other. Marie had fun, calling out cheerful insults whenever Dean fumbled and whooped when he scored on Seth. Dean played dirty, setting his girlfriend to jump on Roman so he’d stop and Dean could steal the ball, but Seth played dirtier, because he _knew_ Dean would come up with such tactics and countered him at every turn.

Finally, Dean hauled Marie over his shoulder and carried her off to the top of the field, the girl squealing and laughing. Seth and Roman sat down at the bleachers, exhausted and sweaty.

“Happy birthday,” Roman said, checking his watch. “Looking forward to SCI-Arc?”

“A little. I’m glad Dean is gonna move to LA with me too.”

“Give me a couple months and I’ll join you guys.” Roman sighed, rubbing absently at his belly where the long surgical scar is, the final reminder of that terrible accident that derailed his dream of joining the Marines.

Seth tugged on the hem of his tee shirt. It was now or never. “Ro?”

“Yeah?”

“Um... I just... There’s something I wanna tell you, and you don’t have to- you don’t have to _do_ anything or say anything. Just...” Seth exhaled and turned to face the older guy. “Ro, you know I’m gay.”

Roman nods, a small smile on his lips. “Yeah. That’s not news, kiddo.”

“And I’m really glad that you don’t think that it’s... that it’s wrong.”

“Because it isn’t.”

Seth took a deep breath and shut his eyes. _Here goes nothing._ “I-I have a crush on you. I like you, a lot, and... and I didn’t want to leave before telling you.” When he was met with silence, he went on in a rush: “You don’t have to return my feelings, I just wanted to confess.”

“Hey, look at me.”

Slowly, Seth opened his eyes, afraid of seeing scorn or disgust. Instead, Roman was just smiling faintly, a few wisps of his long hair hanging in his eyes. He sighed and shrugged awkwardly. “Seth, you’re really like my little brother, so, uh, I don’t feel what you feel. But thank you for telling me, and I’m flattered.”

The younger boy’s lips trembled, but he managed to smile. “Like you don’t get love confessions from a dozen girls a week.”

“More like fifty a week, but who’s counting,” Roman joked. He nudged Seth’s ribs with his elbow. “I hope you find someone nice out in LA.”

“Me too,” said Seth, sighing.

Roman tilted his head. “So do you have a date for prom?”

“No.”

“Well, why don’t you ask someone you like?”

“The ones I like already have dates, or are straight.” Seth bounced his heel on the field. “I’m okay showing up stag, but... It’s prom, you know? Last hurrah.”

Roman sighed and shook his head, before he grabbed Seth by the shoulders and turned him so they faced each other.

“Why don’t you,” he repeated to a dumbfounded Seth, “ask someone you like?” He raised his eyebrows and smirked.

Seth blinked as the penny dropped. “Oh!” Before Roman could roll his eyes at him, Seth blurted, “Would you be my date for the prom?”

Roman grinned. “Of course.” He brushed a finger over Seth’s cheek. “Well, I was gonna pay for the stuff tomorrow as your birthday gift, but I guess I can make it one better, if you’re okay with it.”

“Okay with what?” Seth was not prepared for Roman to lean forward, and definitely not prepared for the firm but gentle kiss. When Roman drew back, Seth had to remind himself to breathe. “Oh. So that’s what it’s like.”

“Oh no, was that your first kiss?” Roman appeared alarmed. “Shit, fuck, Seth I’m sorry, I-”

“No, no i-it wasn’t my first kiss, I just-” Seth breathed out. “I’ve never kissed a guy before. Been kissed by a guy I like. Yeah. It’s, um. It’s different.”

Roman heaved a sigh of relief. Then his smile turned mischievous. “Well in that case, I’m glad I’m your first.” He ruffled the younger guy’s hair. “Happy birthday.”

They both heard Dean hooting at them, Marie clinging on his back like a koala. Seth grinned at Roman, feeling shy and happy. This was the best birthday ever, and Roman being his date for prom would be absolutely perfect.

Life could only get better.


End file.
